‘Top Girls’ gives a strong woman’s view on a man’s world
Caryl Churchill's “Top Girls” is remembered for its unusual opening scene in which a London businesswoman has dinner and drinks with assorted women from history and legend. It is a very funny scenario, and as it happens, pulled off with panache in the current production at Orlando's Mad Cow Theatre.
Cynthia Beckert gives a razor-sharp performance as Marlene, the businesswoman who assembles the historical gang. In the dreamlike sequence, she is celebrating a recent promotion — and perhaps thinking of a few regrets. Billed as a dramatic comedy, director Tony Simotes deftly keeps things funny while gradually allowing the more serious issues to bubble up. He modulates the tone so carefully that you won't realize until after the dramatic last scene that you aren't laughing anymore.
“Top Girls” was written in the 1980s, and to me — a man, remember — every once in a while it feels dated, most notably when a male colleague in Marlene's office is so distraught at the thought of working for a woman that he falls ill. But I already can sense female readers nodding in recognition, so it may well be I simply
‘Top Girls’
■ Length: 2:20, including intermission
■ Where: Mad Cow Theatre, 54 W. Church St. in Orlando
■ When: 2:30p.m. April 21
■ Cost: $26-$40
■ Info: madcowtheatre.com or 407-297-8788
have been fortunate enough to work with more enlightened men.
If that particular (and minor) plot point sounds a tad extreme, it's only one way in which “Top Girls” sharply exposes the challenges women face in gaining access to the highest ranks of management. Churchill's female characters talk about the need to be tough, they are fully aware they must constantly compete for advancement with younger men — and all have sacrificed conventional personal lives, especially when it comes to maternal issues, to find career success.
Such sacrifices are at the heart of Marlene's strained relationship with her sister, Joyce, a poor cleaning lady who is living in rural England and raising Angie, whose portrayer, Allison Piehl, captures the character's stunted emotions and casual teenage cruelty toward her younger pal (Ashleigh Ann Gardner, very good). Joyce's life — and political views — are pointedly opposite of her successful sibling's, and as Joyce, Karel K. Wright distills the perfect blend of pride, anger, disappointment and resolution. Wright also makes a strong comic impression as Victorian explorer Isabella Bird in that surreal opening scene.
Most actors play multiple roles, with particularly memorable turns by Amanda Decker as an ancient Japanese courtesan and breezily modern office worker; Courtney Bahr as a dreamy woman with a horrific story to tell; and Sara Oliva as a secretly female pope and a quiet presentday woman who gave everything to her workplace only to be passed over.
Some might be rattled by the nonlinear structure of “Top Girls” — the out-oftime opening, the fact the last scene of the play takes place a year before other events. Don't be. There's a lot of food for thought here, served up with engrossing performances.